1
Some notes 9/22/11
1. Generally SVO – is this right?? //Cf. PJS comment: “나마어는 주어 목적어 동사를 주요 어순으로
하는데 어순은 좀 자유롭게 변화할 수 있습니다.”
a. Does the pragmatic status of nominals determine the order of constituents? (nonspecific, indefinite first?)
b. To look out for: does order vary with respect to tense or definiteness of object?
i. Yend
sènonjo [wèngem alet]
I
now
[go-1sg fut hunt]
‘I’m going hunting now’
ii. Enjela, nansi, saman [alet
fengèm]
Angela Nansi Saman [hunting go-pst]
‘Angela, Nansi, Saman went hunting’
// Btw, is ‘alet’ a V? Could it be a N?
c. Verb final in some imperative constructions?
i. Tane buk tenuman
My book bring-IMP
//Really? If so, this is very strange…
2. Head-final (with postpositions?)
a. Examples of postpositions?
i. Gimb təkem
jamɛ
təndon
Pig
put(down it) mat, sign beside, side
//is this a postposition?
//distinguish between LOC Case markers and postpositions.
//if a language has case markers, the distinction between case markers and
adpositions may be problematic.
b. GEN precedes head noun:
i. Táf
Elisabet -ene
ámbirosi sú
ghèrarean
During Elizabeth-of
?
pregnant months
ii. What about Táf? Is this language also prepositional?
c. (Strong) evidence to verify head-finality: (look for the following: )
i. Does Relative Clause (RC) and Numeral precede N (e.g., "[[책상위에 있는]
연필]")?
ii. Is Causative expressed by suffixation or by light verbs (e.g., Korean ‘-하다’)?
iii. Is there a question particle? (So far, no)
d. Also, a suffixing language. No prefixation (so far) ~ no head-initiality
3. Weak evidence for wh in-situ; no strong evidence for wh-raising (YET...)
a. Especially, why (namamè) & how (namamèn) in-situ? //Check general WO – SVO or SOV?
i. Fa namamèn nekwu yam?
He why angry be-3sg pr
ii. Fa namamèn euan yam?
He how happy be-3sg pr
4. Wh-phrases:
2
whose
endene
how
namamèn
who
Efe
how many
yènam
5. Case markers:
-an
‘in’
-on
-am
-mun
‘in’
‘on’
‘from’
-ot
‘to’
-am
-ene
-efaf
‘of’
‘to’
roughly
what
nama
why
namamè
LOC
LOC
LOC
SUBJ
(Nom/Erg?)
GEN
DAT?
which
Where
arkamunum ande? / nai?
when
njam
akw-an ‘morning-in’
ndawan ‘garden-in’
mong-on ‘house-in’
kitarakitar-am ‘shelf-on’
nai-mun ‘where(+wh)-from’
mata-mun ‘Mata-from’
ndaw-ot ‘garden-to’
mong-ot ‘house-to’
yuw-ot ‘region-to
amaf-am ‘mother(+subj)
mbermber-am ‘wind(+subj)
Elisabet-ene ‘Elisabeth’s’
yàràitamànt Josef-éfaf ‘engaged to Joseph’
6. Ergativity?
7. Verbal constructions I: Dative/double object construction
a. Ngánjánam yáfáretam enjol Gabril mèrèsoefaf Najareèt Galili yuw-ot.
God sent angel Gabriel to virgin
8. Verb conjugations
PRESENT
PAST
1sg
-an
-un
FUTURE
-g-
SINGULAR
2sg
-e
-am (5)
-eng (3)
-g-
3sg
-e
-am(5)
-eng (3)
-g-
1pl
-am
-um
-g-
Identifying syncretisms in verbal morphology: 
SINGULAR
1sg
2sg
3sg
1pl


PRESENT


PAST


FUTURE
9. Observations concerning verbs:
a.  2sg ~ 3sg syncretism in the present tense (13/23 = 57%)
PLURAL
2pl
-ati?
3pl
-at
-end
-g-
-g-
PLURAL
2pl
3pl
3
b.  2sg ~ 3sg syncretism in the past tense (12/23 = 52%)
c.  2sg ~ 3sg syncretism in the future tense (14/23 = 61%)
d. n-/k- alternation.
i. Does /k-/ prefix mark past?
e. Verbs seem to categorize into either ye- type or nu-/ne- type.
i. Is ye- some sort of object agreement? //I think so.
ii. Nu-/ne- seems to be one-place predicates…verify.
f. –n for singular; -m for plural?
g. Analytic marking: yend, fa, fem morphemes before some plural verbs.
h. What is the w- morpheme?
i.
j.
Present  Past:
i. n/k alternation
ii. /k-/ prefix = PAST
iii. /n/ = ELSEWHERE
iv. n/k/t alternation
Future tense:
i.